Silent and Deadly
by cvibesdoho
Summary: When a boy on Omega catches Thane in the act, he is taken apprentice. LiaraxOc? Fem!ShepxThane
1. The Pair

_A/N: Something I've had on my mind for a long time._

Laser dot trembling on his head. Breathing in deeply. And silence. Nate could feel his heart beat. He pulled the trigger, with a bit sadistic half-smile. As in slow-motion he saw the bullet fly and pierce his skull. Brain matter flew around. Blue Suns helmets have no effect against the Mantis. Another merc walked into view, confused.

"Assassin!" he screamed out.

That's what Nate was. A murderer. A cold-blooded killer. A precicision mercenary. He was barely an adult, but the slums of Omega teach you to fight.

He focused his attention on the Blue Suns camp again. The one who had found the body was in the process of radioing for help. 'He should pay more attention' thought Nate. The reason to this thought hid in the shadows behind the lone mercenary. A Drell. With a lightning quick move he grabbed the soldier into a headlock and shot him twice in the back of his head.

That was Thane. Nate remembered the moment they met. It was Omega, two years ago. The boy was sneaking around the rooftops. Hoping to find money, food. His parents had been killed by some raging Batarian terrorists years ago. As he was walking on top of a building, he spotted a shadow moving around the corner. It was uncommon to see anyone else up there, as a wrong move would mean plummeting to death, into the space and vacuum. Nate decided to see who was the owner of the shadow. Just out of curiousity. He carefully peeked around the corner. What he saw shocked him: a hooded figure lying on the roof with a sniper rifle in his hand. He looked mysterious. Could be worth a talk. So he waited. Nate was not the one to get scared easily. He just crossed his arms and stood there. The hooded figure kept moveless for a good fifteen minutes. Finally he took the shot. The weapon appeared to be silenced. Against the regulations, even on Omega. The Assassin seemed to observe the situation for a while and finally stood up and turned to the boy.

"Yes?" he asked in a calm tone.

"I saw you," Nate stated, voice a bit trembling.

"I know. Anything you want?"

He knew that there was no way of him getting out of this mess alive. He had spotted an assassin killing someone. He was as good as dead. So why not take a chance? He had nothing to lose.

He collected his thoughts and asked emotionlessly: "Could you train me?" He had killed before. Vorcha trying to rob him. Batarians who had killed his mother and father.

To his surprise, the drell didn't draw a weapon. He just stood there. Taken completely by surprise by the question.

"If that's what you want," he finally answered.

Nate slipped away from the memories. Thane was dragging the bodies away, into the shadows. The roof he was on wasn't far. Not far, but a lot higher. Time to take the risk. He took his Mantis with him and vaulted over the edge. The ground was nearing with scary speed. At the last twenty meters he started slowing himself with biotics. He had recieved an implant from the Alliance. After Thane had taken him student, the Drell took him to the nearest Alliance station. There he enlisted and served for a year. Biotic talent was discovered and L4 implants were given. He bribed some important people (with the money coming from Krios) to go into reserve, not serve in active military and here he was now. On another contract for Liara T'soni. Nate liked her way of business, they were quite good friends.

Nate landed with a big boom. A crater was left, but he himself was unharmed. Thane didn't even react to him appearing. The young assassin caught up to the older and side-to-side, heavy pistols drawn, they moved onto the camp.

A guard spotted the pair. He didn't even stand a chance. Nate took careful aim and shot him clean trough the head. The bang alerted all the others though, and there they were. Blue Suns of Illium. It's leaders anyway. Thane grabbed for his pouch and sent a flashbang flying. It exploded with a big, ear aching bang and a blinding flash. Nate knew to expect it and turned away, but most of the shocked mercs were blinded. Thane moved on. With an acrobatic kick he finished off a shotgunner, then gracefully moved onto another. Nate drew another one of his pistols and wielded them Akimbo-style.

He ran forward. One of the leaders was regaining vision. He raised a rocket launcher. 'Where do these guys get all these guns' he thought. The assassin threw himself into a slide and narrowly dodged a rocket shot at him.

Left trigger.  
>Right trigger.<br>Left trigger.  
>Both triggers.<p>

Nate shot furiously. Three Blue Suns remained. Thane appeared and punched one from the front in the neck, so he collapsed as his neck was certainly broken and the man dead. Nate took out a knife. He aimed it at one of the two survivors and threw it.

Headshot.

Thane performed another.

Contract complete.


	2. The Search

_A/N: Story coming right up :P_

The Asari was sleeping deeply. Her apartment was locked, no Shadow Broker agent would be able to get to her.

Liara twitched at the sound of someone walking on metal, albeit slowly. The sounds were becoming clearer. It was now apparent that there were two people in the vents.

She awoke. A second later two dark figures jumped down from the ceiling. The S&D pair. Not so silent now though.

"Well, hello Krios. You too, Halls."

"Just call me Nate," he replied.

"Anybody want to share a bottle of Asari wine?" asked Liara.

"You sure? I mean, you just woke up and all," Nate said.

"I'm sure. I already got the payment for the hit. Your share has been transferred, 300 000 credits each."

"Nice!" Nate said out loud.

Liara let out a small smile and moved into the kitchen area. She returned with a bottle filled with blue liquid.

"Thane, you sure you don't want some?"

"Later. First, I'll have to pray."

Nate sat down behind the table and peeked out of the giant window. It was nighttime. Illium's lights were shining brightly. The nearby Dantius Towers were the only dark ones.

Two hours later Thane had left and a drunk Nate and a VERY drunk Liara were stumbling out of the apartment.

"So uhh… where are we going?" asked Nate.

"No clue," replied the Asari, bumping into an angry Volus passing by. He mumbled something about "those damn drunk couples ruining the environment"

Around the same time the Illusive man was impatiently walking around his office. Commander Shepard had just reported in about Horizon and the collectors. He needed information. Information about one of the best silent killers in the world. But it's not exactly easy to come by something like a certain location for an assassin, especially if he's named Thane Krios.

He received constant reports from the people he had assigned on digging up something on him, but most were just about no findings. There were only a few pieces of information: the assassin had an apprentice, of whom equally little information was available and that he was currently on Illium. Not enough.

A beep sounded. The Illusive man opened his inbox, a new message had been received: a report from one of the people who was researching his apprentice.

He opened it with anxiety. A small list opened up. Finally something!

The suited mastermind started reading:

Name: Nate Halls

Age: 19 and 5 months.

Aggressive combat style; silent, but deadly.

Responsive for the deaths of 26 people.

Relationships: his mentor, Thane Krios, close friend Liara T'Soni.

Family: Father and mother murdered, no brothers or sisters.

The Illusive man lit another cigaret. Liara T'Soni, huh? She had recovered Cerberus commander Jane Shepard's body. The Galaxy is small. Time to let Shepard know, the Asari must be talked to.

He gave the order to find anything about the Asari Justicar, Samara.

Nate in the meanwhile was on a side alley, walking away from the skyscraper that housed Liara. He had no idea where was he going. What he knew though, was that the Asari he was walking hand-in-hand with was moving closer and closer to him. And in a way that a normal Liara wouldn't do.

"Uh, are you sure that's appropriate?" asked Nate.

She found herself clinging onto him very tightly. Slowly she moved away.

She also discovered that they had no goal to their little walk.

"Do you think we should go back?" she asked.

"I've been thinking about it for a long time."

With that they turned straight around and a bit awkwardly stumbled towards the building.

The two of them reached the elevator and took it up, to her suite. There, the Asari walked back to her bed and laid down.

Nate did the same on the couch. The sun was rising. Commander Shepard set course for Illium.


	3. The Human, Salarian and the Turian

_A/N: As you may have noticed, the Liara in this fic is a lot more like the first ME Liara. That is because during the two years Shepard was dead she had real friends and didn't turn as "evil" as in the ME2 game.__  
><em>  
>Nate was observing the Dantius towers. Nassana Dantius was about to go down. Some rich dude had wanted it, they did it. But Nate was slightly worried: Thane had said that this was his last mission. Alone… That was one sad thought.<p>

The sun was beginning to set, nighttime starting. The two moons were also showing up. Nate opened up his omni-tool. Nothing too fancy, Citrys V.

Nate let out a quiet whistle.

"Oo, an Angry Varrens update!" he whispered happily.

"Nate, do you copy? I'm inside," came an incoming call.

"Coming." he replied. The assassin pulled out a grappling hook and aimed it carefully at one of the towers, a bit above his desired landing spot.

Nate pulled the trigger and was flinged towards the skyscraper at an extreme speed. The building was nearing quickly. A biotic impulse later he was slowed down enough to select the exact moment to release the hook. He flew for a few tense seconds trough the air, few thousand meters above ground and landed exactly in a window. An unfortunate merc was there and got taken down.

"I'm inside," Nate informed Thane.

"Good. Head upwards. Also, it looks like someone else is trying to get to the target, some turian, an N7 human and a salarian. Advise caution," the drell advised (duh!)

Nate drew his Mantis and scoped in. Two Blue Suns were in sight, engaged in a conversation: "What's up with all the shooting downstairs?"

"The guys down there must be getting the salarians out."

There was a few seconds of silence.

"By the way, I still think that quarians are the hottest," one started talking again.

"What? Are you crazy? Asari are the best. I mean, who would want a buckethead?"

"Uhh… they're so mysterious and sexy. Asari are such sluts."

"Hey! Take that back!"

Nate smirked at them getting in a fight. More distracted, easier targets. He aimed towards the quarian fanatic and shot him clean trough the head. The other one was clearly surprised and was ripe for picking. With a noscope.

Thane wouldn't approve. He was of the "Quiet, clean, certain" type. Nate moved on, over the bodies, towards the elevator.

He was just stepping into the elevator when he heard the intruders: the human, the turian and the salarian. They had found the two bodies and were trying to guess the cause of death. The bullet holes were found quickly, but the shooter was still missing. Nate quickly applied the invisibility cloak.

"Could be our guy. He's known to have good sniper skills. Keep your eyes open," the human instructed.

"Uh, Shepard. You DO know that you have a teammate with the best sniping skills in the galaxy, right? Why are we even recruiting him?" the turian joked.

Shepard replied: "Because one badass sniper isn't enough for me."

"Based on the dossier, Krios not a famous sniper. Known for his close range fighting style; quick, painless, but brutal," the fast-talking salarian stopped their banter.

The three of them moved over the bodies, towards the elevator. Nate had not called it, as the sounds would certainly have alerted them to his presence.

Shepard called the elevator. Thankfully it was on the same floor as them, so the doors opened quickly.

As the trio entered, Nate slipped in and hid in a corner. That's when he noticed his cloak was running out. Even worse, the turian seemed to be heading right into the corner he was in.

Tense moments passed. Nate knew he was going to be caught. At least the trio seemed friendly.

The moment the cloak wore off he formed a biotic barrier. It was weak, as he had not concentrated much.

"Mercenary assassin, behind you!" Shepard shouted to the turian. Nate was slowly weakening. He knew that if they shot at the same time, he would go down.

"Calm down! I'm no merc," he tried to save himself from death.

"Then who are you?" the human asked cautiously.

Nate decided to tell the truth, at least then he'd have a chance of survival. The trio seemed to be after the Eclipse guarding the place: "Nate Halls, assassin. Now what do you want?"

"Nate Halls? The apprentice of Thane Krios?" the turian asked.

"Precisely. Now it's your turn to shed some light on what's going on."

"We're here to find your mentor. We need to-"

"Recruit him, right? I heard. I meant who you guys are?"

"I'm commander Jane Shepard of the SSV Normandy, former Spectre, and these are doctor Mordin Solus and former C-Sec, now vigilante Garrus Vakarian," Shepard introduced the trio to Nate.

"Vigilante? I like the sound of that," Garrus quietly commented.

"I'm here to kill Nassana Dantius," Nate told about his plans.

"Any way you can tell your buddy Krios not to shoot us to pieces when we get out of this elevator?" Garrus wanted help.

"Sure!"

-

"So, with Shepard&Co I moved over the bridge and confronted Nassana. Apparently Shepard was familiar with her already. Thane swooped in, killed Dantius and… left with her. I decided to stay here as you see," Nate finished explaining to Liara. He had gone to her apartment because that was the only place for him to go after Thane left. Thane himself had switched places a lot, so the pair stayed mainly at hotels.

"So uh, could I stay here for a while?" Nate popped the question.

"Of course!" Liara agreed, "I've always had that couch on the first floor just sitting there. Glad someone could use it. Especially someone as charming as you," she added.

Nate didn't have anything against Liara, but a relationship in his profession wouldn't end well.

Nate sat down on the aforementioned couch. He really enjoyed the view from Liara's place. The asari also sat down, next to him.

"So, have I told you the story about me serving on the Systems Alliance flagship under commander Shepard?" Liara asked. She was in a great mood.

"Only about a million times. But it couldn't hurt hearing it again now that Thane is with her."

"Are you planning on going with him?" Liara asked a bit sadly.

"As long as you're not coming, no. But if there's really going to be a war against those reaper thingys, count me in!"

"Thank you! It really means a lot to me!"

"No problem. Now, about Shepard,"

"So, two years ago I was investigating protheans on a hot fiery lava planet called Therum…"


	4. The Ambush

_A/N: Worry not, the next chapter is almost ready, no long wait for it. It will be AWESOME!_

Nate was out shopping in Nos Astra. He needed to upgrade, the Mantis didn't cut it; it was good, but not great. The assassin had earbuds on, a human rock band was loudly playing. It saved him from the annoyance of all the volus arguing with their customers. It was a typical Illium morning, people rushed around, there were disputes, nothing special.

Nate stopped the music and headed into the store. A few minutes later he had decided for an Incisor. Three round burst sounded good. As he had a few thousand credits to spare, he also bought himself a new Phalanx heavy pistol. The laser sight oughta help.

The assassin headed out of the store. He also wanted a new visor, bio-amp and the newly announced omni-blade upgrade.

The morning turned into day, credits changed owners and Nate acquired new gear. As time passed on, the feeling that he was being watched strengthened. The weird-looking turian just standing there and mumbling to himself, the salarian looking at the same helmet for twenty minutes, the krogan at the fish tank looking away from the fish. He wouldn't have noticed them, but the last one was suspicious. From personal experience he knew that you can't make a krogan stay away from a fish tank. Not for long anyway. But he wasn't occupied with anything else, just standing, occasionally sending careful glances trough the crowd.

Something was wrong and he knew it. The question was, who were they? He needed to get out of there immediately. As he sped up towards the nearest cab stand, the strange people also started moving. He was just a few metres from the nearest taxi when he felt someone kicking him in the back of his knee. Nate's foot went limp and he stumbled. That's all the attacker needed. It was a turian, tall and muscular. Nate was dragged into a side alley. Noone was around to see it.

An asari walked up. Her face was covered with a black and white helmet on his head; Shadow Broker mercenaries.

"Nate Halls. The Shadow Broker wants to make a deal with you," the asari said.

"And you couldn't have sent me a warning message or something?" Nate replied. He had no intention on becoming one of the Broker's agents.

"We need you to eliminate a competitor. In return, we'll let you live."

"Well, who is it? The target?"

"Liara T'Soni. Agreed?"

"I'll have to think for a second."

"You do not have much of a choice here. You can't lie, we'll put a tail on you until you kill her."

"Actually, I do have a choice," Nate smiled childishly.

"And that would be…?"

"Wether to spit on you and escape, or just… wait, no. I don't have time to talk. So go f**k your self and goodbye!".

Nate hit the turian holding him with an elbow and used the omni-blade to stab the asari in the stomach. He jumped over the body and ran towards the exit. The krogan agent standing nearby decided to stop him. Time to try out the bio-amp. He fired up his biotics and used them to throw the krogan backwards out of the alley and over the railing.

"The upgrade certainly was worth it," he commented. Nate turned around just in time to see the turian rush in, holding a heavy pistol in front of him. The omni-blade got another victim before the merc reacted. The Kuwashii visor's kill count meter jumped to three.

Nate turned around once again and finally hailed that cab.

"Liara T'Soni's info brokerage!" Nate shouted at the taxi.

"Routing… ETA: 5 minutes," the VI answered.

Nate dialed Liara the very next moment: "Liara, the Shadow Broker has a hit on you. Be careful, I'll be right over. Try to contact Thane or Shepard."

"You called too late. My secretary already attempted to shoot me. I dealed with her, don't worry. Calling Shepard now, bye!" Liara replied.

The taxi arrived and Nate stormed out, up the stairs and into the office. Liara was standing in a firm stance, aiming at the door.

"Let's go to my apartment. Shepard is ETA 4 hours,"

"That's… bad. Come," Nate drew his new Phalanx. The pair walked out, side to side, ready for attacks.

They reached the cab and took it to the asari's apartment.


	5. The Escape

A/N: Okay, so things are getting a bit more EXPLOSIVE with Nate around. Don't expect everything to be exactly like the LotSB DLC.

It was raining. Lightning boomed around. And Liara was scared. Not because of the weather, no, but because of the threat on her life. She knew that the Shadow Broker wouldn't stop at that. Liara looked around, searching for Nate.

The assassin was prone in front of the huge window. He was scanning the area for threats with his Incisor. "Go get some sleep. We don't want you tired when the fighting starts," Nate urged Liara to rest.

"You think they'll attack us?"

"Definitely. Let's hope not before Shepard shows up though."

Liara woke up at the sound of her private terminal beeping. She stood up and walked downstairs. There was a new message from his salarian contact. He wanted to meet her at the Ikouron centre, in an hour. She checked the time to find out that her old captain wouldn't be there for another hour and a half. She needed to leave her a message. The prothean statue? No. Computer? Too obvious. The picture of the Normandy? She smiled and proceeded to fill the disc with data.

Nate was looking for the slightest sign of movement from the rooftops. He had been doing that for nearly two hours and he was getting tired. The lightning struck once again, but this time to light up a corner in which was a dark figure. Only for less than a second, but for long enough for Nate to spot him. He scoped in and looked for the figure once again. Their eyes met trough the sniper scopes. It was an asari. For a moment the area around the foe lit up from a muzzle flash.

Nate rolled to the side and a moment later a bullet pierced the glass and hit the spot where he had been. That couldn't have been a random assassin, someone professional. And someone with knowledge about Liara's house. Regular bullets wouldn't pierce the glass, but this one went straight trough it. He scoped in again to find no one in the spot or around it.

"Liara! We've got to go!" he shouted.

"Wait… done!" she replied.

"Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Liara asked, running downstairs.

A second later the apartment door blew apart in a loud explosion. The shrapnel smashed the window and prothean statues completely.

"Oh you got to be kidding me!" Nate said.

He ran. And so did Liara. The window was smashed. They jumped just in time to hear another loud bang from a grenade going off.

The ground was nearing at dangerous speed.

They both applied biotic force to slow themselves down.

Liara somehow managed to fall into taxi riding by.

"State your destination," the VI ordered.

"Ikouron centre,"

Liara looked around for Nate.

What she did see was a Shadow Broker gunship speeding out of behind a corner. Wait, is that…?

Nate was hanging onto the gunship with one hand and shooting the onboard mercs with the other. He pulled himself up in time to see one of the pilots move into the cargo space to engage him. (A/N: imagine the gunship being something like the ones in SW: The Clone Wars, not the traditional ME gunship) The assassin omni-bladed him in the chest and kicked him off.

Nate proceeded to the cabin, pressed his gun to the chin of the pilot and shot him. The bullet happened to also break the cocpit glass, but the decompression wasn't powerful enough to cause anything but discomfort.

He pulled the body off the seat and took his place.

"Wish I took flying lessons," he muttered. Nate grabbed the wheel-like control device and used it to steer past a building. He also found a lever to control the height.

A holodisplay informed him of an incoming "friendly" gunship.

"Now which button fires the missiles?"

He saw Liara not far ahead in a cab.

"We'll take down the target. Provide cover," came an incoming transmission, most likely from the other gunship.

The vehicle passed Nate. He moved a stick-like control and a targeting reticule appeared.

"Say goodbye!" he taunted and pressed the button on the control. Two missiles flew out and obliterated the enemy gunship. It spinned out of control into a nearby building. In the meanwhile Illium security forces were approaching fast.

"Liara? Can you manually manuever the cab under the gunship?" he contacted her.

"Sure. Just be careful."

Nate set the gunship on a straight course and left the cocpit. Liara's vehicle had just reached the spot below Nate's gunship.

The assassin hang himself over the edge of the gunship. Liara was two meters below him. The taxi's roof opened. Nate let go and fell in just in time to escape the other vehicle's crash into a skyscraper.

"Let's hope they never figure out we were here. I'm NOT going to pay all the rebuilding costs and fines,"

"It was self defense, right?"

"If you count badassery as self defense, sure."

The Ikouri center was right in front of them.

"Get ready for a rough landing!" Liara shouted.

The pair almost crashed into the front door.

"Now we just need to find my contact," Liara said.

"And fight all these troops. Way more fun than talking to some hyper salarian."

The pair opened the door and walked in. The same moment a bomb went off knocking them off their feet.

-

4 hours earlier-

Commander Jane Shepard had just taken a shower and was petting her miniature giant space hamster. The furry fellow just was so cute. She was interrupted by a loud chime.

"This is Liara T'Soni. Shadow Broker agents attacked us. We need to get out of here. Shepard, come quick, we're not at good odds."

"I'll send you an ETA as soon as the moodkiller elevator gets me to combat deck."

-

20 minutes earlier-

"Thane, you're with me. Tali, you too." sounded Shepard's voice over the intercom.


	6. The Chase

_A/N: WOW! It's been a WHILE! I started writing this chapter back in october, and the last chapter I _uploaded _was god knows when. Well, to everyone still following this story, here's a late Christmas present for you. Merry Christmas! BTW I noticed I completely messed up with the name of the centre Liara was supposed to meet her contact at: it's actually the Dracon centre. Oops..._

"You found him yet?" asked Nate Liara trough the comms.

"Wait… yeah. He's here. Get over here, quick," she replied.

"Copy."

Nate opened another door to reveal a close by SB merc.  
>An omni-blade stab later he was no longer a threat. He moved on, stopping only to scope in and headshot an approaching attacker. It was a routine, he knew he should care for the people he killed, but this was different. Liara was in danger.<p>

Nate took a quick rest on one of the windows. As he turned around, he noticed Shepard, Thane and a quarian nearing the building. Shepard was wearing her N7 combat armor with a breather helmet. It was dyed yellow with a few black spots. Thane looked... different. He seemed happier than ever before. Well, not like he was smiling or anything, but he sure was not like he was worried about his impending death. The quarian looked like any other he had seen before. That uniform sure was tight... He cleared his head and muttered: "'Bout time,"

The assassin neared the room in which Liara was supposed to be.

The door slid open and Nate faced an asari he knew he had seen somewhere. She was standing away from Liara and seemed a bit annoyed.

"Nate… the mercs killed the contact. We have no more leads," Liara complained.

"We do," he smiled his usual clever and a bit annoying smile. He knew something she didn't.

The other asari twitched slightly at this. At the same time the door opened again, to reveal Shep & co. marching in.

"Any luck?" Shepard asked.

"The contact is dead," Liara replied.

"Nice to see you got here in one piece," the stranger said to Shepard.

"Nice because you can now kill her yourself?"

"Nate! She's a spectre! What do you mean?"

"AND a Shadow Broker agent," Nate added, drawing a heavy pistol.

"Is that true?" Shepard asked.

"I saw her trying to snipe Liara. She's behind the plot to kill her, I'm pretty sure of it."

"Is that all you've got? I expected more. No one will believe you," Tela taunted.

"I will." Shepard drew her pistol, followed by the quarian pulling out a shotgun and Thane an SMG.

The SB agent unleashed a shockwave that threw the group off their feet, followed by a "You pure-blooded bitch!" shout.

"What's her problem anyway? Why does she care? If you want one-liners, call me!" Nate said getting up. The asari was already out trough the window. He jumped after her, biotically slowing his descent. A few SB mercs showed up forcing Nate to take cover. He waited for one to get close and pulled off a failure drill by putting two shots into the soldier's chest and finishing him off with another to the head. A vanguard and a regular merc remained. Nate moved silently behind cover, cloaked himself, and headed behind the enemies. The two baddies turned and aimed behind the cover he had been residing behind a few seconds ago. There was noone there. „Huh?" came a sound from the vanguard. He had been slapped hard across the back of his head with an omniblade.

„Let me go!" the other one begged.

„Okay. Go ahead, run." The mercenary looked behind once more and ran like the devil himself was after him.

-

"She's getting into a cab, don't let her get away!" Shepard shouted. Nate and Liara hopped into another close by. The commander was forced to take a third one for her crew.

Nate pressed the gas down and the vehicle started with a bang. It accelerated rapidly with the g-force pushing the pair's heads against the seats. The other Asari's car came into view. So did an oncoming truck.

"It's a truck," Liara reported.

"Yup," Nate replied.

"It's a TRUCK!"

"Nice to know. I was just wondering," Nate went the sarcastic route. He narrowly dodged it, drifting right behind the truck and rushing after the enemy.

"She's dropping mines."

„I'm assuming this thing doesn't have any weapons," Nate asked.

„Other than a fare meter, no. The prices are pretty high nowadays."

„I have an idea. You're NOT going to like it."

„Let me guess: it involves jumping to her vehicle, hundreds of meters in the air and some kind of crazy biotics?"

„How'd you guess?"

„Logic."

Nate opened the roof and calmed himself. Everything was going to go fine. He will not fall. But the fear of heights started to kick in. „Here we go!" he shouted. Liara was now behind the wheel. She pushed the cab to it's limits and soon caught up with the Asari. Nate jumped. Everything seemed to slow down around him due to the effects of adrenaline pumping trough his veins. Tela was accelerating. He threw his hands forward and grasped the rear bumper. He had made it. The problem was that Tela had also noticed him. He had to do something and do it fast. He pulled himself up and applied an overload to the cab. It suddenly stopped in mid-air. Tela opened the door and hurled herself out. Nate didn't waste any time and dove after her. Nate used his biotic powers to speed his descent up. Eventually he caught up and grabbed Tela from behind. She tried to pull her gun on him and turned around so they were facing each other. Nate pushed the gun away and so narrowly avoided getting shot. He punched her in the face repeatedly. The Asari erected her barrier, pushing Nate away. The assassin finally got a chance to see the ground: it was right behind her.

The Asari smashed hard against the ground.

„OH SH**!" Nate also hit the sidewalk.

„Welcome to Azure," a pleasant female voice said over the speakers.


	7. The Twist

Nate slowly opened his eyes. He felt ringing in his ears. His eyes were hazy and he felt like he had been banged against the head with a baseball bat, with the difference being that he had been in reality just fallen about 500 meters from the sky.

He turned his head. The Asari was dead. Her head was a blue gory mess and pieces of her were lying all around the place. "Shit!" he thought, "Gotta get up." He slowly started raising to his feet. Suddenly a sharp pain ran trough his foot and he collapsed on the ground. The bone was broken. His head was still ringing. There was blood slowly flowing out of his foot.

He decided to stay still as his omnitool was not working for some reason. Well, falling from that height must have shattered it's processor.

Some time later he awakened to the sound of a voice coming trough a sound filter. "Are you okay? You have to wake! Please!" It was that Quarian Shepard had had with her. Nate opened his eyes and first looked down. The bleeding had stopped. Automatic medigel injection! Of course! His head was clearer, but his foot was still broken.

"What? What happened?" he asked.

"You have to come quick. It's the Collectors. Shepard! Shepard's… dead!" she was sobbing.

"What about Thane? Liara?"

"I don't know. Th-They just appeared out of nowhere! They blew up the cabs! They came with the Shadow Broker mercenaries! And the cops… they did nothing to stop them. It was like they were controlled by something," the Quarian said, obviously trying to fight the overwhelming hopelessness.

"We have to go. Now!" Nate shouted and tried to get up. It was painful. Then an idea flashed into his mind. He flared up his biotics and created a field to support his broken leg. They moved to a cab stand and hired one to the docking bay. Nate relaxed a bit, but still stayed alert for impending threats. The cab zipped quickly trough the traffic. The Normandy was in sight.

"Almost there!"

"How are we going to explain?"

"We're just goi-" He was cut off short as a huge, colossal figure appeared in the distance. A second later the Normandy was no more. It had exploded into pieces from a red death ray.

"Oh keelah… it's the Reapers. It's over. This is the end. We have failed," sat the Quarian deeper into her seat.

"We need to get offworld. I MIGHT have an idea," Nate said, "We're going to need an extranet terminal." He opened his omnitool map and noted one just over 20 meters ahead of them. They commanded the taxi to stop and moved as quickly as the leg allowed to the terminal. Time to make use of Liara's intel. He proceeded to use a password to access Cerberus communications.

"Requesting the Illusive man, urgent. It doesn't matter who I am, just get him on the line."

The terminal beeped a few times and then opened up a direct link to the Illusive man.

"Nate Halls. I expect critical information. I am not even going to ask how you got access to our communications. What's the problem?" he tossed his cigarette into the bin.

"The Reapers are here! Everyone in Shepard's crew is dead. I think. We need access to project Change."

"Change? You are a sneaky one. Or was it Liara T'Soni that told you? Very well. It's not completely ready yet, but should be functional." He lit another cigarette, "I already know about the Reapers being here though. It appears our worst fears have come true. I thought we had time to warn Shepard and have her destroy the relay the Reapers came trough, but it's too late for that. I give you authorization. Make it count. This is humanity's last chance. I'm sending you the coordinates. It's a half an hour ride from Nos Astra." The Illusive man cut the communication.

"We got to go. You'll see for yourself when we get there."

They hitched yet another ride. Nate opened his mouth: "So, what's your name anyway?"

"Tali'Zorah nar Rayya vas Neema. But, I think you can call me just Tali, considering it's the end of the world." She let out a nervous chuckle.

"You have arrived at your destination," announced a VI. A lone cargo ship floated in space, obviously cloaked using the same techonolgy as the Normandy.

"Nate Halls and Tali'Zorah requesting permission to dock. Situation is critical."

"Permission granted. We don't have much time left if what we've heard is true. Hurry. We'll send someone to meet you," a Cerberus operative said.

A very formal-looking young man arrived to greet them. He waved for them to follow and started jogging forward. Nate shrieked with pain. He decided to use his biotic powers to the limit and started hovering forward. After less than a minute of walking and floating they arrived. An oval shaped portal was in one of the walls with a terminal right next to it. It wasn't the prettiest invention.

"I assume you know what is going to happen. This device modifies the flow of time by crossing light speed. Basically it means that you can try to get Shepard ready for it. You'll remember everything you have done and know, as far as our test subjects have indicated. Two and-a-half years back I presume?" he asked.

Nate nodded. He took a peek at the obviously interested Quarian who was close to asking about the different parts of the device.

"It's ready," a man said, „Step trough. Nothing bad has happened before, don't worry. Though obviously the previous test subjects were animals and we sent them backwards only a few days."

Tali slowly stepped toward it, Nate close behind. She paused for a second and walked in. The Assassin followed her. An endless blackness greeted them.

_A/N: Was it too much? Was it okay? Should I delete this chapter and continue like it seemed before? I'd appreciate some feedback._


	8. The Split

Nate and Tali found themselves in a cargo hold. It was relatively empty, except for the few weapons laying on a nearby crate. He took a careful step forward. His leg was no longer broken. Or rather, not yet broken. There was a stairway to his left, so he waved Tali to follow.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"I think we are where the Cerberus experiment took place. The problem being that two years ago there was no Cerberus here. My guess is it's a civilian cruiser passing by. I don't want to think about what could've happened if no one was here right now. We'd be stranded in space," he explained.

"Let's get going. I don't want to know what people will think of us "hitchiking" on their ship," Tali expressed her thoughts.

They creeped up the stairs, armed with the M-8 Avengers found on the crates. A door opened in front of them. A lone man stood behind it facing away from them. He was armed and seemed to have a long beard.

"What should we do?" Nate whispered.

Tali made the impression of stabbing someone in the throat. Nate did not question her and pulled a knife from his sleeve and jabbed it into the side of the sentry's neck, covering his mouth with his hand. He swiftly pulled it out and dragged the body out of the doorway. No one had yet noticed them.

"That's what you call an ace up your sleeve," he smirked, "Must be a pirate ship, any Quarian laws against forcefully overtaking ships?"

"We tend to look bad on thieves. But it's not like we have a choice."

"We do. We do it the fun way, shooting every single f***er in the head, guns blazing, or take it quiet and heighten our chances of survival."

"Let's just see how it turns out," Tali proposed.

Nate didn't reply and looted a pistol from the corpse. He moved on into the room. It was a mess hall, albeit an empty one, with just a few rum bottles. Nate had read about the 17th century pirates and was surprised they had kept their fondness for rum all this time. The ship certainly wasn't small. It lacked in janitors though as it was pretty dirty and the floor was stained. There were two doors in the room, excluding the one they had just come trough.

"I say we pick the left one," Nate proposed.

Tali nodded and they took cover on each side of the door. He activated the door and carefully peeked in. It must have been someone's private quarters. Two figures seemed to be passed out sitting on chairs near table. Nate walked up to them and sliced one's throat swiftly with his knife. The other's treatment wasn't much better. While looking trough the bodies' belongings Tali was already near the other door. They once again took cover and opened it. It was a small hallway, with yet another door in the end. Logically they proceeded towards it, when a voice cut them off.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" it asked. It was certainly human, but did not seem like one a pirate would have. Well, a stereotypical pirate anyway.

"Keep your hands where I can see them. We are coming, but don't try anything," Nate warned.

They proceeded into an almost invisible doorway on the side of the corridor. They opened it to find a man sitting in a corner. He was pretty muscular and had Asian features.

"Kaung Myat, Migrant fleet marines. At your service," he greeted. His eyes widened. "Tali'Zorah?" he asked.

Nate stared in confusion. "You don't look Quarian to me," he said.

"I am not. My mother, or rather stepmother was. Until the Batarians came. Can we just get going? I'll explain later."

The trio moved back into the corridor.

Tali whispered to Nate as quietly as she could: "Aren't you afraid of unknown people? On a pirate ship?"

"You seem to know him. Besides, we need all the help we can get if we are to stop the Reapers," he replied.

They moved trough the corridor to find a cockpit behind the door at the end of the hallway. It was populated by a single pilot, who was obviously very drunk and relied on his autopilot for any hope of keeping the ship from crashing into debris of the nearby asteroid field. Nate walked up to him from behind and slit his throat.

"God I hate all this blood! I ruined the chair and this guy's clothes!" he complained.

"What's the plan?" Kaung asked.

"The plan? Join Shepard, kill the Reapers and have fun. Like always."

"Shepard's alive?" he asked.

"What year is it?" he queried in return.

"2185," Kaung replied.

"Oh. Well, I'm going to sleep. We've had a long day with Tali."

"We're just goi-" He was cut off short as a huge, colossal figure appeared in the distance. A second later the Normandy was no more.

"Oh keelah… it's the Reapers. It's over. This is the end. We have failed," sat the Quarian deeper into her seat.

"We can't let them win. We have to find an embassy or something. Contact the Alliance," Nate vocalised his thoughts.

"There should be one just a block away." She input new commands into the taxy. It made an U-turn and sped straight towards the ground.

"You have arrived," the VI informed them.

They opened the doors and ran towards the skyscraper with the Alliance logo on it.

He could hear muffled explosions in the background. Nate activated the intercom: "This is private Halls. Requesting an audience with anyone of any responsibility. I have the Normandy's chief engineer with me."

"Come in. We have captain Anderson here."

Nate opened the door and stepped into the lobby, Tali accompaning him. "Over here!" an administrator waved them over, "Take the elevator to floor 28."

"Oh, great. That's bound to take two hours for the elevator to reach," Nate remarked. He and the Quarian stepped into the metal box of boringness and surprisingly no more than two minutes later they arrived.

Captain Anderson faced them. "I gather the situation is as bad as I think it is?" he asked.

"The Normandy is gone, yes. Along with all crew except for the two of us. It also appears that the Shadow Broker is allied with the Reapers."

"I have contacted the Alliance. Their ETA is just a bit less than a day. The local squadron's anyway. The Asari and Turians are also moving in, but they're going to take longer."

"What's the plan?" Tali asked.

"We hold out until reinforcements arrive. Intel shows about 30 or so Reapers. According to Shepard's info, this is nothing compared to what they actually have. Must be just a scouting attack.

This is not going to end well, let me tell you."

_A/N: Excuse me for the date 2185, I have no clue if it is correct or not as the year in which ME2 takes place, but I'm too lazy to check it out on the ME wiki. Also, to anyone wondering, Anderson is on a vacation pretty much. Until the Reapers appear that is. Have a good day, I'm going to sleep as it is 2AM at the time of writing :)_


End file.
